‘Monster’ child rapist from Pembrokeshire, UK, jailed after police unpixelate his face in sex attack photos from years back with brand new decryption tool

Martyn Armstrong pled guilty to a total of 41 counts of rape of a child under the age of 13 and sexual assault related to two victims, and to making, distributing and possessing indecent images of children

Armstrong documented himself committing ‘depraved’ acts against three children, including a victim as young as one

He performed these acts between 2005 and 2011 and posted the pictures to the dark web

Armstrong had used photoshop to place a zig-zag distortion across his image, but made no attempt to disguise the identities of his victims

Armstrong, 50, aka ‘Father Jones’, was arrested in July last year after officers developed a new decrypting tool that unpixelates a masked image

The upload of his most depraved acts was known to crime agencies across the world since 2013 due to the file being shared and downloaded across 18 countries

A prolific and ‘evil’ child rapist has finally been brought to justice and jailed for life after police used new technology to unpixelate photos he took while carrying out sex attacks.
Martyn Armstrong, from Pembrokeshire, recorded himself committing ‘depraved’ acts against three children, including a victim as young as one, over the course of several years. The pervert then posted the images on the dark web.
Although Armstrong’s activities had come to to the attention of authorities in several countries years back, he was only arrested in July 2021 after authorities deployed new technology that unscrambled masked images.
Armstrong, 50, pled guilty to a total of 41 counts of rape of a child under the age of 13 and sexual assault related to two victims, and to making, distributing and possessing indecent images of children.
In a victim impact statement, one of the people he abused labelled him a ‘monster’ who had ‘forever darkened a piece of my childhood.’
Roger Griffiths, prosecuting, told Cardiff crown court Armstrong had taken the images between 2005 and 2007, as well as between December 2009 and February 2011, and had admitted to taking photos of a third child on a beach in 2010.

Armstrong posted 200 extremely graphic images and a video under the file name ‘Father Jones’, which shows him repeatedly raping his youngest victim.
The series was known to crime agencies across the world since 2013 due to the file being shared and downloaded across 18 countries. The folder was still being shared in the UK in early 2022 across six websites, and had been found by police forces in 583 forensic submissions.
Griffiths said Armstrong had used photoshop to place a zig-zag distortion across his image, but made no attempt to disguise the identities of his victims.
Due to his face being blurred, investigators were unable to identify the pedophile for almost a decade, despite attempts by law enforcement partners from Australia, Italy and France, with an officer from the latter country identifying the exact beach location in Wales, which had featured in some of the images.
Griffiths said: ‘One image featured the offenders face with a zig-zag distortion.
As a result in July 2022 and the National Crime Agency [NCA], officers using their new image decrypting tool they were able to unpixelate the image of the defendant in that series.’
The software was developed by NCA officers in the UK and is the first of its kind to be developed in the world. It is expected the program will help future perpetrators to be identified.
From the undistorted image, the officers were able to identify Armstrong’s Facebook profile leading to his arrest.
Officers seized a number of his devices and discovered a disturbing cache of images including 789 category A, 989 category B and 2227 category C.
Griffiths said: ‘Armstrong was tracked down and asked if he was guilty of the offenses and he answered, “To some of them, yes”.
Adam Sharp, defending, said: ‘Armstrong does not want me to try to mitigate the depravity of his actions or the impact they had on his victims.’
Sharp said his client has taken full responsibility for his actions, but asked the judge to take into account how he cooperated with officers and had led them to identify other victims.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, one of his victims said: “The second I saw the piece of paper [with the images], it felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“I saw my smiley, younger self full of happiness, confidence and innocence. I am no longer able to look at these pictures without a rush of panic and heartache. I feel betrayed, manipulated and deceived.”
Addressing Armstrong, they said: “You abused me, manipulated me and have forever darkened a piece of my childhood.
“When I think about the type of person who could commit such horrific crimes, I feel like only a monster could ever be responsible. Never did I think that all along, the only monster was you.”
Sentencing Armstrong to a life imprisonment with a minimum term of 14 years, judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke noted that Armstrong clearly had a “long lasting sexual interest” in young girls and that the photographs he had taken and distributed “will continue to be used for the sexual gratification of other pedophiles around the world”.
“In these courts we deal with the most serious sexual offenses but the nature and depravity of your offending is shocking.
“No doubt you thought the precautions you took to hide your identity would protect you from being identified,” judge Lloyd-Clark said.